Gallagher Purview Seems Laughable

November 12, 2002

Re the headline on the Oct. 25 article by Purva Patel, "Gallagher takes aim at insurers": This is really laughable. If he did take aim, he must have been using a Keystone Kops rifle with the barrel bent 180 degrees, because he actually shot himself in the mouth.

The article reported that Tom Gallagher (the insurance commissioner) approved a State Farm property insurance rate increase of 14 percent, but rejected a much larger requested increase. State Farm then requested a review by a legally authorized arbitration panel, which granted a much higher rate increase with a 45 percent cap. Mr. Gallagher then vowed to pursue future legislation that would eliminate the arbitration process because (get this) "it hinders the department's ability to ensure rates that are adequate but not excessive."

This statement would indeed be laughable were it not so tragically inconsequential with regard to the recent Conseco Senior Health Insurance fiasco. Mr. Gallagher seems to forget that it was his department alone that approved a 45 percent rate increase on top of sequential, annual increases of as much as 200 percent or more in some cases. This was done without, I repeat, without the help of any arbitration process.

Too bad that Mr. Gallagher shot himself in the mouth. Maybe now he won't be able to speak out of both sides of it.